Team Samvad

employment.

Workforce Suppliers & Restaurants/Eateries: The workforce in the hoteling industry has been reduced due to the pandemic, leading to mass unemployment concerns in the sector. The pandemic has adversely affected suppliers (food, toiletries, etc.) to hotels, and even restaurants have had a significant reduction in revenue.

Uses of Contactless Technology

Figure 3: Top contactless technology people want (Blackbox, 2020)

A recent survey indicated that nearly 76% of travellers would prefer destinations that offer more contactless experiences (Blackbox, 2020). In a bid to make the travel experience safer, contactless technology can be implemented in the following touchpoints:

Hotels and Rentals: It is expected that most hotels will start implementing some mobile app to improve the consumer experience. Customers can enter their rooms, control room temperature, adjust lights and operate the TV using their phones. Room service requests like cleaning, extra amenities etc. will be done through the same app. Chatbots, robots, automatic check-in kiosk can reduce face to face contact significantly. The dining experience in hotels is also very likely to change. Room service will be the primary mode of ordering food. The paper menu is a hotspot for germs; it needs to be replaced with a digital menu in the mobile app or through a QR code. Methods of payment have been going digital for a long time, and the pandemic will push this further up. 2. Corporate Travel: Historically, corporates hand employees a company credit card to cover their payments. An upcoming technology is the use of a virtual card (O'Neill, 2020). A virtual card can be initiated in a traveller's phone, and a limiting value can be set as well. Spend limits can be set on food, drinks and recreation; it will work exactly like a credit card but without any kind of contact.

3. Airlines & Airports: Airports can use contactless technology like facial and iris scanning for bag drops, boarding gates, access gates and duty-free shops. Digitalized passports can reduce contact at checkpoints. Making e-boarding passes compulsory and introducing sensor-controlled touchless lavatories can make airports a lot safer. Crowd management can be automated through Lidar (used in Apple iPad pro) that can check the distance between people and sound automated alerts when people camp close together (O'Neill, 2020). The inside of aeroplanes can be automated by linking the seat and table trays with Bluetooth and adjusting through an app.

Figure 4: Facial Recognition and its uses (Bhattacharya, 2020)

Contactless Technology around the world (TN Bureau, 2020)

Biometric Boarding: A partnership between Beijing Capital International Airport and the Swiss tech company SITA has automated entire

passenger journey through biometrics. Several processes from check-in and bag drop to security clearance and final boarding have been made automatic and contactless through facial recognition systems. Contactless check-in: Kiosks integrated with infrared proximity sensors have automated the check-in process in Singapore's Changi Airport. The system can recognize the motion of a passenger's finger while pointing at the screen and can complete the process without needing to touch the screen.

Contactless Elevators: Gesture controlled elevators have been installed in Abu Dhabi International Airport in partnership with UAE tech startup Meta Touch. People can operate the elevator without having to touch anything.

Contactless Hospitality: Dutch hotel chain citizenM has instituted a smartphone application that can help guests to check-in and out digitally. Guests can even also control lights, blinds, and temperature inside their rooms through the application.

Disinfection Robots: Several intelligent sterilization robots have been deployed by Hong Kong International Airport to disinfect airport premises and areas at a rapid pace. The robots have been equipped with ultraviolet lights and air sterilizer, which are capable of sterilizing the surroundings in 10 minutes with 99.99% accuracy.

The rise of contactless technologies is empowering stakeholders across the tourism value chain to get back to business. Digitizing the whole end to end journey through biometric boarding, automatic check-in and contactless hospitality when combined with regular sanitization measures can create assurance among the travellers and reignite the tourism economy. Automating each checkpoint will help in the collection of real-time data that can improve and customize the travel experience. But this also raises concerns regarding data security and privacy. The industry needs to embrace the technology at a rapid pace and address these concerns of privacy to bring back stability and accelerate the resurgence of the industry post the pandemic.

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We invite articles for the November 2020 Issue of SAMVAD.

The Theme for November month“Renewable Energy” The articles can be from Finance, Marketing, Human Resources, Operations or General Management domains.

You may also refer to sub-themes on Dare2Compete.

Submission Guidelines:

o Word limit: 1000 words or a maximum of 4 pages with relevant images. o Cover page should include your name, institute name, course details & contact no. o The references for the images used in the article should be mentioned clearly and

o

o o o o explicitly below the images. Send in your article in .doc or .docx format, Font size: 12, Font: Constantia, Line spacing: 1.05’ to samvad.we@gmail.com. Deadline for submission of articles: 25 th November

2020

Please name your file as: <Your Name>_<title>_<section name e.g. Marketing/Finance> Subject line: <Your Name>_<Course>_<Year>_<Institute Name> Ensure that there is no plagiarism and all references are clearly mentioned. Clearly provide source credit for any images used in the article.

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